


it couldn't have had happened differently

by orphan_account



Category: Happy Tree Friends
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Canon-Typical Violence, Flashbacks, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Introspection, Light Angst, Mild Gore, Minor Character Death, Minor Character(s), Not Beta Read, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:01:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25731775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Some things aren't worth looking back on if they still stir up feelings and make you wish for the impossible.Shifty does so anyways.
Relationships: Lifty & Shifty (Happy Tree Friends)
Kudos: 4





	it couldn't have had happened differently

When was too much ever too much? And when was it alright to take - or more so free - what has been kept for too long?

Shifty finds the answer in a photograph. Its colors were faded and tape littered the surface, almost peeling off by the edges. It wasn't a very pretty picture, he had to admit. At most it was almost like some tragic keepsake. Not worth a dime in contrast to how much a family heirloom would. 

Shifty had seen this particular picture around before. On the mantle or sometimes even on Lifty's bedside table.

He didn't need a double take to figure out that the two young boys in the picture - with their fluffy, striped tails curled, beaming grins, tussled green hair, and neat clothes - was him. And Lifty. Shifty and Lifty. 

Maybe it was a pretty picture if he placed aside his feelings. The ornate wallpaper behind them and the plush couch they were sat on looked fancier than most of the ones that he saw while sneaking in and casually robbing the fellow residents of Happy Tree Town. 

Ornate. Fancy. Two words that could never describe him and his twin no matter how many times he'd make them wear pearl necklaces and golden rings. With how most of the town thought of them, it'd just sound like a joke. A lie, maybe, if they were lucky.

It didn't matter anyways. If luck or karma had anything to do with it, Shifty didn't care and if Lifty still did then there's shoving his face back into reality. Even if it was an 'if'. What were they going to do anyways? He knew almost every folk in town would never help. They'd let him starve and die and come back alive again just to starve. They'd let Lifty go through that endless cycle too. 

Maybe it could've been avoided if their father paid more attention. If mother hid with them instead of running off to find their stupid dad. Idiots. Both of them. For not knowing when it's safe and when they were in plain sight for a gun to see.

Lifty walks into the living room, bored and all before slumping onto the couch next to Shifty. He pays him no mind, even as his younger twin looks over his shoulder with questions flying over his head.

Just a second passed and soon they were both quiet. Staring. They always did stare after all and a lot of people noticed. Most assumed they were eyeing another thing to steal. Sometimes they were right. 

And they were proven right very quickly.

Shifty puts the photograph down after a while as soon as his wrist starts aching. Lifty wastes no time in picking it up.

It was funny. Shifty would laugh and his brother would too if it went differently. Snickers and cackles wasting their breath. Carelessly. Freely. 

But they weren't. Because nothing happened differently. It just happened. The robbery just happened all those years ago when their mansion had been deemed ripe for the taking.

It definitely left them bitter. And not only that - but poor. The twins left to wander the world without care or enough coins salvaged to eat more than a couple of wildberries. Or maybe apples. Loaves of bread?

Those were the little bits of their childhood that Shifty dreaded remembering the most.

Admittedly, stealing was fun. Being all sneaky and feeling the thrill of amounting to something dangerous - like people no one would want to mess with. 

Watching Giggles look around confused while they walk away with pockets full of jewelry. Running from Flippy - Fliqpy if they were being specific - just for breaking in. Mole was easy and so was Lumpy. It was great. Freeing. And felt so much like a safety net after they've been falling for God knows how long.

And then Lifty dies.

He remembers it so vividly and remembers his bubbling fear stir in his stomach. Shifty had to drop the bag of.. something just to run back to him. The blood. The guts. Just when he reassured himself that it could never happen again. 

The coat hanger was practically stabbed into Lifty if not just brutally slammed into him hard enough for it to poke through the other side. Intestines were strung around it and he could see bits of muscles hanging off. Ribs flew out, were cracked, or simply decided to stay shattered inside of Lifty. The tears looked nonexistent and couldn't show how much pain his twin had been feeling.

The life in his eyes didn't stay for much longer and Shifty's own almost seemed to blink out completely. He didn't even register the simple sho-

"Hey, knock-off Versace. You look like you're trying to plan my murder. Stop."

"Go off, Lifty. Maybe actually start being useful while you're at it."

… That was automatic.

Shifty felt his shoulders relax and a small, easy smirk slap onto his face. Despite the leftover feeling of dread settling deep somewhere, it's far enough for him to stop caring.

Even as Lifty sneered and shoved him and just showed how much of a nuisance he could be… it was still annoying and the furthest thing away from endearing. 

But it was real. And alive. And something that is sealed in a diamond safe. Its code had been forgotten long ago. And it was in a room guarded by a million Bruce Lee's armed to the teeth with machine guns.

And so he concluded that there could never be too much.

There would just be things stolen without any care for who it was stolen from. Regret is a permanent thing that could only be smothered for so long. Money will become useless and golden jewelry will rust. But they're still treasured and valued because of their usefulness and beauty.

Shifty can ignore memories of times that had him in silk dress shirts and fancy pants. Lifty can't. But maybe that could be alright.

Happy Tree Town had the pleasure - but most definitely the despair - to have their whole town absolutely ransacked.

**Author's Note:**

> This was definitely inspired by 'A Piece of Silver' by Kismetica shskshsjjs
> 
> I also had this little headcanon in my head that Shifty and Lifty used to be these lil elites bec their parents were rich??? Except they were robbed at like a really young age and their parents kinda.. died so w0o


End file.
